"ShipServ is a vital tool for us as a leading European ship chandler and we need to be highly visible in the ports we serve as it is used by all the leading shipping companies."

George Saris, PresidentAtlas Ship Chandlers

"We started to use TradeNet just to save time and stop manual typing of orders, but now we get other substantial benefits including vital benchmark data on suppliers’ response times that help us in all our negotiations."

Knut Ove Thuland Hansen, Purchasing ManagerUtkilen

"Time is the biggest saving through ShipServ. We have detailed data that tells us that the amount of time we spend per vessel each week has dropped from 9.2 hours to 7.9 hours."

Richard O'Malley, Purchasing SupervisorCrowley Maritime

"Encouraging our suppliers to adopt the e-commerce platform has been well worth the effort. We have reaped significant cost savings from streamlining our purchasing processes."

Charles Ong, Purchasing ManagerKeppel Shipyard

"Since joining ShipServ in 2012, we have gained 7 new clients in 18 months. It has helped our company be seen in the international shipping market as both ShipServ Pages and TradeNet are used by many different shipping companies and it also speeds up the process between buyer and supplier."

The December/January edition of the prestigious publication Marine Engineer’s Review featured an article on how the internet has changed the way maintenance and spares procurement is carried out onboard.

Read an excerpt from the article below:

MER Dec 12/Jan13

Another area of shipmanagement where the advent of internet has brought major improvements in terms of cost efficiency and transparency is maintenance.

“One area in particular that is fundamental to boosting the bottom line is maintenance.” , says Tage Klockars, General Manager, Service Agreements Development, Wartsila Services.

The Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) has also greatly contributed to the manner in which ships are required to order spares.

Dynamic maintenance is one solution that by planning ahead and having equipment available, cuts down spare parts costs as well as reducing unplanned stops. Maintenance is therefore planned according to the actual condition of the equipment and this is also helping the crew to keep the machinery in optimum conditions.

A second type of maintenance is need-based replacement. Wartsila’s approach to this is to develop a partnership with shipowners and operators and to carry maintenance according to their actual needs. For this, they use condition monitoring reports, inspections and other technical analysis.

As measurement and monitoring technology onboard ships advances, a range of automation and online systems are being used by Wartsila to plan the maintenance needs of their clients.

One of the online procurement software that also have the capability of scheduling the maintenance and replacement cycles is Amos from SpecTec, a ShipServ software partner.

The ShipServ TradeNet platform already helps over 175 shipowners to efficiently manage more than 7500 vessels.

The TradeNet client list includesowner/operators such as AP MollerMaersk, Teekay Shipping, MOL Shipman-agement, MISC, ER Schiffahrt, Utkilenand Holland America Line and over12,000 suppliers including leading enginemanufacturers such as Wärtsilä, MANB&W and Yanmar.

ShipServ Chief Executive Paul Ostergaard believes that the development of e-commerce in the shipping industry can now be broken down into specific eras.

“From our perspective in shipping e-commerce, we can now see three clear ages of e-commerce that have developed in the last 12 years: Connectivity, Information and Trust. When ShipServ launched in 2000, we went through a period of five years of helping to connect both buyers and suppliers, which we tend to label the age of connectivity.

Once we had enough buyers (shipowners and shipmanagers) connecting with suppliers across the globe, came the age of sharing, curating and using information.

Age of trust

We are now entering the age of trust and this is where the technology provided by the internet can be really powerful,” he tells MER.

“ShipServ has implemented its own trust mechanisms on ShipServ Pages with TradeRank, Reviews and Verifications, enabling buyers to gauge each supplier by their activity and through recommendations from peers.”

The brandverification tool gives OEMs such as Wärtsilä, MAN B&W and Yanmar the ability to verify all authorised suppliers on ShipServ Pages.